I recently got of the phone with AT&T “customer care”. It was an unusually frustrating experience, even by the standard of dealing with a multi-billion dollar corporation which has roots as a regulated utility. I had been transferred among 6 different departments over the period of a couple of days. As I write this, I’ve […]

Bad Customer Service is one of my hot buttons and what I feel is an undervalued area for many consumer and B2B tech company CEOs. As a result it’s not considered a “core” area of the business and receives far too little attention from senior management. I’ve said in the past that not only is […]

No one answers the telephone anymore. What does this signal about the importance of customer service? At least, technology companies in the US surely don’t answer the phone. With big companies, you are either presented with an endless phone tree–“press 1 for a company directory”–or the newest innovation in communications technology: the cheerful “automated voice […]

An under-rated competency–which should be considered MUCH more important–to software and hardware companies is customer service. I suppose that’s only natural; tech companies are very focused on gaining strategic advantage via technological advances and product differentiation. Once the product is in good shape, companies shift their focus from development and become hell bent on marketing […]